prepared to do harm but unable to prevent it

William Adams was an English mariner who led a Dutch into the Pacific Ocean in 1598. This was during the Anglo-Spanish War, a period of 20 years where the Protestant nations of England and Holland fought with the Catholic Spanish and Portuguese. As an experienced navigator and leader of ships (Adams had previously fought with Francis Drake against the Spanish Armada), his knowledge was highly sought after by the fledgling Dutch Republic. So when five Dutch armed trading ships slipped out of their Texel harbor, they did so under the guidance of an English Pilot.

Today, the Mariners had to rely on the guidance of Emerson Hancock, who, unlike Adams against the Armada, has not yet distinguished himself. His last outing in Milwaukee against the Brewers did not go well, as he was tagged for 8 runs in just 3.1 innings. Pregame, manager Scott Servais talked about how Hancock needed to use his sinker to get ahead in the count and induce groundballs. In the first, he did even better, getting leadoff hitter Ian Happ to pop out before striking out the next two batters he faced. Early sailing was pretty smooth.

Adams’ cruise ran into early trouble as the Dutch crew realized that their rations wouldn’t last the whole voyage, forcing them to stop in West Africa to forage for water and fruit. While there, the captain-general, along with half the crew on one of the ships, caught fever and died. Attrition was starting to have an effect.

Hancock’s two strikeouts per inning obviously wouldn’t hold; that’s not what kind of pitcher he is. But things turned on him a little more than expected, with back to back singles from Dansby Swanson and Michael Busch. The next batter, Nico Hoerner, hit a ball at 100 MPH, but not very high, and it fell into Julio’s glove in center. It still went down as a sac fly, scoring Swanson from third. Tauchman then popped out to end the inning but already, runs were scoring off attrition.

Things were not all bad for Adams in the Atlantic. The Dutch happened upon a Portuguese fortress in modern day Cape Verde, and stormed it. Inside, they found something more valuable than gold. In those days, when much of the world was undiscovered to Europeans, detailed maps and ships logs were rare, and could guide future expiditions. The rutters were logs that pilots, like Adams, kept, and served as the basis for future exploration. The Portuguese jealously guarded their rutters, keeping them secret and preventing the Protestants from having access to their profitable spice and silk trading ports in Southeast Asia. But in Cape Verde, Adams found one of those rutters. The path to the East now lay open to the Dutch.

The Mariners answered the Cubs early lead with a rally of their own. Mitch Haniger benefited from a catching error by Cubs first baseman Michael Busch, and moved up to second when Jorge Polanco hit a solid line drive to center. When Mitch Garver struck out, and Dylan Moore flew out to the edge of the warning track, it looked like the Mariners were about to waste another RISP, no outs situation. And then Luis Urías hit a line drive down the left field line that rolled all the way into the corner. Haniger scored easily from second. Notably, this was not an earned run as Mitch reached on error. This will come up again later.

Luis Urías gets us on the board pic.twitter.com/yD4cEJniO4
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) April 14, 2024

Finding the rutters was where the good news ended for Adams. Even though they told the Dutch ships how to get through Magellan’s pass at Cape Horn, the mariners would still need a favorable wind to get through those treacherous waters. And yet for months the wind blew against the small fleet, and the crew was left freezing in the Antarctic waters. After four months, and nearly 200 deaths, they finally made it into the Pacific.

Not taking the lead in the bottom of the second would come back to haunt the Mariners. With two outs in the top of the third, Hancock left a slider hanging over the inside of the plate. Seiya Suzuki is too good of a player to miss that.

Seiya later! pic.twitter.com/8xGeJoYwNg
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) April 14, 2024

Almost immediattly after rounding the Horn, the Dutch ships were caught in a storm and lost sight of each other. One ship returned to Rotterdam, and two others were pushed back into the strait. On board the Leifde, formerly Erasmus, Adams waited for four weeks for more ships to make it through. The two ships that were blown back into the strait eventually returned, but with many crew members lost in the storm. Over the next few months, the Dutch crews were slowly diminished by starvation, scurvy, fever, and combat with both the Spanish and indigenous peoples.

Suzuki’s home run need not have been the killing blow. The Mariners had rallies going in both the 4th and 6th innings. But weak ABs in the former and stunning defensive plays by Christopher Morel at third meant that the M’s couldn’t push anything else across. Like a ship running out of food, the Mariners were running out of outs and opportunities.

One ship was lost in Valparaiso, and another in Tidore. A third finally sank just off the Hawiian islands. With the one that returned to Holland, that left Adams’ vessel as the last one still sailing. In a final, desperate gamble, he consulted the Portuguese rutters, and set sail for a land with one foot in the realm of myth: Japan.

After the momentum killing 6th inning plays by Morel, the Cubs put the screws to the M’s. Michael Busch made up for his earlier error by giving a Tyson Miller slider a good long ride over the right field fence. And then the next inning Miguel Ayama did the same thing to an Austin Voth cutter. The Mariners’ hopes were slowly sinking. Cal hitting a single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth was just a desperate flailing with the bailing bucket. J.P. followed him by striking out,

Fundamentally today, the Mariners lost today because, even though they had a gameplan, they could not get to Japanese pitcher Shota Imanaga. Some players, like Jorge Polanco and Mitch Haniger, were able to see his pitches well and laid off the junk while putting good swings whenever Imanaga gave them pitches to hit. But, as a team, the Mariners could not put it together. Imanaga has burst on to MLB with a vengeance, and after 3 starts he still sports a 0.00 ERA, since Haniger only reached on an error. With Hancock keeping the M’s in striking distance, maybe the team was too overconfident that they could get to Shota.

Or maybe it was their karma to lose today. The approach from hitters like Dylan Moore was great, and yet D-Mo was held hitless. Christopher Morel posted a -7 OAA last year, but tonight he looked like a gold glover. Perhaps it comes down to that old Japanese saying: shikata ga nai. There is nothing to be done.

As for William Adams? A fictionalized version of what happened next to him is told in James Clavell’s 1975 book Shogun, which is now being adapted as a miniseries (for the second time) by FX. It actually goes pretty well for him, all things considered. Maybe tomorrow will go well for the Mariners.